Chapter 21: Elicia 5
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 21: Elicia 5
"We have about two hours left. Anyone who wakes up during that time has to fight me again."
Hearing those terrifying words from Professor Elicia, I squeezed my eyes shut even tighter.
"Loki, I know you're awake."
Of course, someone of Professor Elicia's caliber could tell I was conscious just by the rhythm of my breathing. Even knowing that, I continued to play dead.
I’m still out cold. So please, just leave me alone.
"Oh? Still not getting up?"
Step, step.
Perhaps it was because my other senses had sharpened with my eyes closed, but the sound of Professor Elicia’s footsteps echoed vividly in my ears.
There’s no way the Devil Instructor is just going to let this slide.
Sensing something ominous, I risked a peek to see what she was doing. Because of my mask, she wouldn't be able to tell whether my eyes were open or closed anyway.
The moment I saw what Professor Elicia was up to, I bolted upright and threw myself aside.
Crash!
"Eek! Throwing a desk out of nowhere? Isn't that dangerous?!"
"I knew you were faking it."
Professor Elicia had literally picked up a desk and hurled it at me. If I hadn't moved, I would have taken a direct hit.
"What a hurtful thing to say! My body just reacted on instinct the moment it sensed a crisis."
Since I was already up, I took a look around. The desks I had piled at the front earlier were now scattered across the entire classroom—a testament to how much we had fought while I was out.
Hardly any of the scattered desks were intact. Most were smashed to pieces or split in half, and one was currently engulfed in flames.
"Next time we fight, it might be better to move the desks outside first," I suggested.
Professor Elicia seemed to agree, surveying the wreckage with a nod. "I suppose so."
As she began gathering the broken furniture to one side, a thought seemed to occur to her, and she turned back to me. "You won't be able to throw desks next time. Will you be alright?"
"I'll be fine! There are still plenty of things in this classroom I can use!"
If I really ran out of things to throw, I could just shove the broken pieces into my Pocket Dimension and hurl them later.
"Your skill was impressive. Where did you learn to set traps?"
"Thank you for the compliment. I didn't exactly learn it anywhere; I'm self-taught."
Thanks to my trait, Creator’s Hand, making traps was easy as long as I had the materials. The difficult part was getting a feel for where, when, and how to set them—that was what took time to master.
If I hadn't learned how to fight from Duke Adelian, it would have taken me forever to figure out the timing, even with the traps ready.
Scanning the classroom once more, I looked at Professor Elicia, who hadn't broken a single drop of sweat, and asked, "Is this classroom an Artifact?"
"It is."
I knew it. While objects like the desks were destroyed, the floor and walls looked perfectly fine. Even the wall Kuran had been slammed into earlier, which had been deeply dented, was already back to its original state.
"Any more questions?"
"Nope! That's all. Should I help you clean up until the others wake up?"
"Don't talk nonsense. Attack me before I have to come to you."
Tsk. I tried to breeze past it naturally, but I guess that wasn't happening.
The other students were still unconscious. If even one of them were awake, I could have at least bought some time to set more traps.
"I’m not really fond of performing without an audience, you know...!"
Swish!
I threw a dagger at Professor Elicia mid-sentence in a surprise attack. The blade flew in a straight line toward her.
Snap.
Of course, she caught the dagger with ease. Seeing that, I raised both hands in the air as if surrendering.
"If I surrender now, do I still have to fight?"
"Are you actually asking because you're curious?"
"Haha, of course not. But there's always that 'what if,' right?"
"Sigh... I've felt this since I first saw you, but you talk too mu—"
Professor Elicia couldn't finish her sentence. A dagger suddenly dropped from above. She barely managed to tilt her head to dodge the falling blade.
"Don't you think that was a close one, even by your standards, Professor?"
"Did you throw that when you raised your hands?"
"Ding-dong! Correct! You noticed right away, Professor."
I spoke with an air of leisure, but I had no traps left, and it was obvious she would catch any dagger I threw directly.
I guess I have no choice but to fight her head-on.
I lunged at Professor Elicia, swinging my cane. Despite having fought non-stop, she didn't seem tired at all as she effortlessly dodged my strike.
Whoosh.
"Do you remember the entrance ceremony?" she asked.
"Of course I do!"
How could I forget the day I first met the main characters of Croaka?
Whoosh. Swish.
"I watched all of you fight back then."
"A monitor screen couldn't possibly capture my handsome face. You think I look better in person too, don't you, Professor?"
Swish.
"The students in the Special Class are the ones I personally selected after watching those fights."
Professor Elicia didn't answer my question. Well, they say silence is golden—or in this case, consent. It seemed even Professor Elicia thought I was handsome in person.
A face recognized even by a Dragon. That's me.
Swish. Slash.
"I had two criteria for picking the Special Class students. What do you think they were?"
"..."
I didn't answer and simply kept swinging my cane.
"One was possessing Innate Magic, which others cannot teach. The other was... the students who had looks of frustration on their faces when you, Lucas, and Clara took down the Golem."
Professor Elicia didn't counterattack; she only dodged.
"The students who looked frustrated have actually grown much stronger in just a week."
I kicked off the ground and retreated, putting distance between myself and the professor.
"Lucas and Clara have also grown stronger, perhaps stimulated by someone else."
"..."
"But the one who has grown the most in that short time is you, Loki. What on earth happened during this past week?"
What happened? I was busy fighting the Emperor, that's what. The reason I grew the strongest is probably because of the Clown’s Mask I'm wearing. Since I kept it on while fighting the Emperor, my proficiency in Shadow Step and swordsmanship must have increased significantly.
"The other students don't seem to have noticed yet, but your weakness is surprisingly simple."
Professor Elicia's next words pierced through me like a dagger.
"Stamina. You know it best yourself, don't you?"
The reason I had retreated even though she wasn't attacking, and the reason I hadn't replied to her, was because my stamina was completely depleted.
Students who specialized in close combat had likely been building their stamina since they were very young. Unless you're a mage, nothing is more important in a fight than endurance.
But I was different. Before coming here, I was just an ordinary person—aside from being incredibly handsome. I only had six months to build up my stamina after arriving here. While the Clown’s Mask allowed me to increase it quickly, it was still insufficient.
"Furthermore, your movements seem to consume a lot of energy."
Shadow Step was extremely taxing on the body because of how much movement it required. During the entrance ceremony, the magic beasts were weak, so the consumption wasn't that bad. And when we fought the Golem, I had focused entirely on dodging.
"Is that why you relied on traps as much as possible?"
Just as she said, I knew I couldn't keep swinging my cane for long, so I tried to end things with traps.
"Wow~ To think you'd notice that. The Academy professors really are something else."
Thanks to my Poker Face trait, the fact that my stamina had bottomed out didn't show on the outside. Including Professor Elicia, only three people had realized I lacked stamina so far. The other two were the Emperor and Duke Adelian. The common thread was that they had both fought me for an extended period.
"Still, since your weakness is stamina, the way to overcome it shouldn't be difficult."
She was right. Overcoming a stamina issue wasn't complicated. You just had to train.
"It might not be difficult, but it'll take a long time. But who do you think I am? I have my own ways of increasing my stamina."
The "way" I was referring to was the Elixir I received from the Emperor. One of its effects was increasing stamina. I had intended to take it immediately, but I held off because of the Emperor's advice.
'It will be more effective if you build up some stamina on your own before taking it.'
According to the Emperor, assuming my stamina increased at its current rate, it would be best to take it in about a month.
"Ho? Your own way of increasing stamina? What is it?"
Even though I felt like I was about to die from exhaustion, I put an index finger to my lips.
"That's a secret."
No matter how tired I was, I had to deliver that line. Professor Elicia looked at me as I sat down to rest after my satisfying retort.
"And who said you could rest? The only time you're allowed to rest is when you're unconscious."
I suddenly remembered why Professor Elicia was called the "Devil Instructor" in Croaka.
"So, get hit and pass out."
I woke up two hours later.